Nintendo, like it seems to do every other console generation, is back to doing poorly after becoming so accustomed to creating devices that printed money. Now, both its console and handheld devices aren’t living up to expectations, though the Nintendo 3DS isn’t holding onto the cliff with one remaining finger like its big brother the Wii U.

One reason why the 3DS (and also the PS Vita) isn’t doing well isn’t because it’s a poorly made machine — after all, you can just shut off the janky 3D effect — it’s because mobile gaming has largely moved from dedicated machines to smartphones and tablets. Nintendo has long since avoided the mobile market, but now a new report from Japanese newspaper Nikkei claims that Nintendo will finally make the move to the mobile market sometime this year.

Nintendo is a company built on stubbornness and its own disillusion. It ignores critics and fans alike, and goes ahead and does whatever it wants; sometimes that creates a hit, and sometimes that creates the Wii U. It’s mainly thought that Nintendo has avoided the likes of smartphones and tablets for so long because then the company would be directly competing with itself, putting its properties on devices that aren’t its own, giving people with smartphones even less of a reason to grab a 3DS. Well, facing potential financial ruin — having posting an annual loss of over a quarter of a billion dollars — Nintendo might actually be coming to its senses, but only just.

According to the report, Nintendo won’t just put its own games on iOS and Android, but will instead use the mobile space to market its console games. However, aside from simply launching some kind of Nintendo video channel app that largely plays commercials for games, Nikkei reports that the company will also develop mini-games or mini-demos for the mobile platforms, showcasing the full console experiences users could enjoy if only they owned Nintendo hardware.

Of course, if Nintendo wanted to make an immediate return to financial success, it could easily just make the PokéMMO that everyone has been wanting for years. However, Nintendo is still Nintendo, and baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Nikkei reports that Nintendo will make this announcement Thursday at an investor briefing, so stay tuned.